On The Fly

October 09, 2013

There is no Red Sox MVP. They have MVPs. Jacoby Ellsbury, Koji Uehara, Shane Victorino, David Ortiz, DustinPedroia, Yalie Craig Breslow and on and on. All were important in the regular season and in their four-game American League Division Series win over the Rays.

These aren't your old Red Sox. Sure, they can bash home runs. But they also can beat teams with running, pitching and playing effective small ball. The Rays can attest to that.

The Red Sox open their AL Championship Series at Fenway Park Saturday against either the Tigers or Athletics, who play the deciding game of their division series Thursday night. Both teams have notable former Red Sox — the Tigers with Victor Martinez, Anibal Sanchez and Jose Iglesias, and the A's with Brandon Moss, Jed Lowrie, Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick and Bartolo Colon.

Club president Theo Epstein couldn't lure Joe Girardi to manage the woebegone Cubs. Girardi signed a four-year contract to remain as Yankees manager through 2017. The contract reportedly is worth about $16 million, including bonuses — or about $284 million less than what Robinson Cano is seeking.

Point guard Sam Cassell Jr., whose dad played in the NBA, tweeted his commitment to UConn. Huskies coach KevinOllie and Sam Cassell Sr. once were teammates on the Bucks.

Former UConn and NBA player Donny Marshall has moved from a Celtics TV analyst's chair to the YES Network to work as a Nets analyst.

Two teams, mired in a losing spiral, play each other Thursday night at Soldier Field in Chicago. The 0-5 Giants have allowed the most points (36.4) per game and committed the most turnovers (20 for the year) in the NFL. The Bears (3-2) have lost two straight games. If the Giants don't win, it'll be many more boos for Big Blue. And the hot seat for coach Tom Coughlin will sizzle up even more.

Finally, this Yankee talked about his PED use. Not Alex "A-Roid" Rodriguez, but Francisco Cervelli. An apologetic Cervelli told Newsday that he used banned substances from the tainted Miami clinic Biogenesis because they offered the possibility of "a quick fix," a faster return from a broken left foot suffered in March 2011 when he was battling for a backup job.

Tennessee is scheduled to play a football game against Virginia Tech in 2016 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Yes, somehow a field will be constructed on or around the asphalt and on the infield. What is expected is a college record crowd of about 160,000. The previous record was 115,109 for Notre Dame-Michigan at Michigan Stadium last month.

Looks like good news for New Haven Open. A teleconference will be held Thursday where it is expected to be announced that the state and the CRDA will be involved in keeping the tennis tournament in New haven.